East Carolina football players spent the week before the biggest game of their lives on the road, sheltered in a South Carolina hotel as Hurricane Floyd battered their homes hours to the north.

And hours after beating ninth-ranked Miami in the biggest upset in school history, they returned home only to find much of that school and most of their hometown of Greenville, N.C, under water, swamped by the worst flood of the century.

The Pirates came from 20 points down last Saturday to beat the Miami Hurricanes 27-23, but Hurricane Floyd was far more destructive. They returned from the highlight of their athletic lives to find much of their real lives washed away, apartments condemned and cars destroyed. And today at noon they travel to Army (1-2), trying to ignore for a few hours the losses they have suffered while keeping their minds on something as trivial as sports.

“I told the guys that the nation’s eyes were going to be on them, and that they have to step up this week and prove that we’re for real,” said ECU coach Steve Logan, who has neither made nor tolerated any excuses while guiding the Pirates to the 19th spot in the latest AP poll and their first 4-0 start since 1977.

“We only have one sign in our locker room and it says ‘No Excuses.’ By-and-large, our players were very lucky. I drove down (Monday) for the first time and saw what was going on, took the time to see for myself. It’s dumbfounding. You can see it on TV and read about it in the papers, but it’s dumbfounding seeing it for yourself. Our problems aren’t much. There are people living in shelters, some have lost loved ones. We don’t have problems.”

The team left for South Carolina as the hurricane swept in on Sept. 16, and after beating the Gamecocks that Saturday it stayed in a Columbia (S.C.) hotel. Every day the players would line up to use one of five pay phones in the hotel lobby – the NCAA forbade them to use the room phones – trying to call loved ones and get the latest word.

They stayed away all week and moved last weekend’s home game with Miami to Carter-Finley Stadium. And, in what Carolinians are calling the Rally in Raleigh, they overcame a 20-point, third-quarter deficit for the first win over a Top 10 team in school history. David Gerrard threw a 27-yard TD to Keith Stokes with 4:51 left, and as time ran out the 45,900 in the stands – most of whom had lost much in the flood – ripped the goalposts down.

They returned home that night, more than 224 hours after leaving. What they found was the Tar River 25 feet above flood level, overrun through Greenville. Shops were closed, streets were flooded. Twenty-two of the players lost their apartments.

“What stunned me after the flood, I went in the housing where some of the kids live and expected to see water. But it’s not water; it’s sewage,” Logan said. “I don’t think what’s there can be salvaged.”